After two summers of grasshopper mayhem, Colorado bug scientists, farmers and fishermen are, unexpectedly, hearing only crickets in the tall grasses this year.

Drought, bug spray and the fungus of a cold, wet spring have whittled estimates from as high as 17 grasshoppers per square yard in state test areas the past two years to about 3 per square yard this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Fishermen haven't yet figured out what it might mean this summer.

"We just figured the 'hoppers weren't out yet," said Peter Berntsen, manager of Front Range Anglers in Boulder.

Big, juicy grasshoppers can chum the water for magnificent trout, the trophy fish that attracts fly-fishermen and big business to Rocky Mountain recreation areas as temperatures heat up and the market cools down for skiing, rafting and hunting.

On the other hand, grasshoppers devour crops, and Colorado agriculture is a $40 billion industry. No one who works the fields is lamenting the loss of locusts this year, said those who have faced the swarms.

"The word 'grasshopper' hasn't even come up this year," said Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers.

(RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post File)

Colorado weathered infestations in 2011 and 2012, and the trend was expected to continue this summer.

"They were building up, and we were looking at a serious problem," said Frank Peairs, a field-crop entomologist at Colorado State University. "The drought depleted their resources, so we've seen a big turnaround."

Assefa Gebre-Amlak, a regional extension specialist in pest management for CSU, said a cold, wet spring promoted bacteria that's bad for grasshoppers. Farmers helped out with spraying and other field management the past two years, he said.

The crop losses and the varied costs for fighting the 'hoppers aren't counted up separately, but wheat, millet and grazing operators say there's nothing cheap about a grasshopper swarm. They call that locust.

"When you have a drought, you usually have grasshoppers," said Steamboat Springs rancher Mike Hogue, reached on his cellphone while he was baling hay Monday afternoon. "It's a double whammy. They can wipe you out in a hurry."

Hogue said spraying isn't simple or cheap. It means hiring a crop-dusting plane, buying chemicals and usually divvying up thousands of dollars in costs from a collection of regional growers and ranchers. And the process isn't a always lasting one.

"If you spray, and your neighbor doesn't, his grasshoppers just move over and become yours," he said.

The fish, however, abide.

While trout prefer grasshoppers, they will make up for the absence by gobbling up flies and ants, said Ben McGee, the guide manager for Front Range Anglers.

Man-made flies have to compete with real grasshoppers during infestation years, but trout accustomed to the meaty bugs are quick to hit on a fly that imitates a grasshopper when it hits the water, he said.

Fly-fishing is a $750 million industry nationwide. The American Fly Fishing Trade Association released a study last year that indicated the Rocky Mountains region accounts for most fly-fishing sales with 31.5 percent of the market nationwide, and the July-to-September window accounts for 36.3 percent of the fishing, according to the survey of retailers.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.